Hamburger Buddy

Very finely chopping onion, mushrooms and carrots in the food processor is not only fast—it makes the vegetables hard to detect for picky eaters. They also form the base for the sauce of this ground beef skillet supper. Make it a meal: Serve with a green salad.

READER'S COMMENT:

"Total comfort food! I've made this dish several times now. My partner actually requests it!
My modifications were based upon many suggested by other reviewers: Chop and shred your veggies for the texture, splash of red wine added...

154 Reviews for Hamburger Buddy

01/26/2015

Anonymous

Bland and mushy

This was disgusting. It had no flavor at all, and while making it, it became obvious to me that the person who wrote this recipe didn't know how to cook. Following the directions leads to severely overcooking the vegetables to the point where they nearly dissolve into the sauce, and the only hint of flavor is the Worchestershire sauce, although that mostly gets lost in the mud of the rest of this recipe. Why, why, why would anyone want to copy Hamburger Helper, which is the notoriously worst food in existence? (I made this because my mother found the recipe and insisted that I cook it for her. She apologized afterward because it was such a bad recipe.)
Why isn't there a terrible rating? Poor is too good for this mush.

I read the reviews and I thought that perhaps the people who gave this low reviews were following the recipe to closely or didn't have as much experience in cooking, and had difficulty improvising. Well, I am very experienced, and I was amazed at just how bland and flavorless this was - I'm not even sure where in the recipe things went awry, but I ended up adding a tablespoon of tomato paste and taco seasoning, then sprinkled some crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese on top and put it under the broiler for a minute or two. It became edible, and the family liked it OK, but it wasn't really healthy at that point. So disappointed...

I think that part of the problem with reviews on this recipe COULD be that people (like me) was looking to this as a substitute for the way unhealthy but tasty Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper. This recipe is not that and if someone takes a bite into it expecting that, they will be disappointed.

Having said that - this recipe is a nice change of pace and a good way to have comfort food with some veggies mixed in (coming from someone who is not a veggie fan). I had some big garlic cloves and it definitely had a garlic taste to it and was honestly a bit bland otherwise. I salted and peppered it and put a little bit of shredded cheddar in it and thought it tasted good.

I probably won't make it much because it did seem a bit labor intensive for a weeknight meal. I'll be interested in seeing what my husband has to say about it.

This has become one of my family's go-to meals, a real comfort food-type dish. My husband and two teen boys are big meat eaters so I actually double the amount of ground beef and up the pasta to about 12 ounces for extra heartiness. The only other modification I make is to add to replace the water with more broth and throw in a generous handful of grated sharp cheddar, for a bit of a "cheeseburger mac" twist. Rounded out with a spinach salad, it makes a healthy, hearty meal for hungry guys!